Irish Referees Ready For Six Nations Appointments

It is a busy first weekend of RBS 6 Nations action for Irish referees, with John Lacey taking charge of his first ever Championship match in Cardiff and Alain Rolland - the world's most-capped active referee - lining out as an assistant referee in Paris.

IRFU Women's referee Helen O'Reilly is also on her travels this weekend as she takes charge of the France v England clash in Grenoble in the opening round of the Women's RBS 6 Nations.

Also in the Women's tournament, IRB Women's Development Manager Susan Carty continues on her refereeing pathway with an assistant refereeing appointment for the Ireland v Scotland game in Ashbourne.

Elsewhere, Sean Gallagher heads an all-Irish team of match officials for the European Nations Cup match between Romania and Portugal in Cluj, with Gary Conway doing likewise for the France v England fixture in Draguignan in the Under-20 Six Nations.

Meanwhile, the IRB match officials gathered in Dubai last week to hone their physical conditioning and game management preparations ahead of a busy year of international rugby.

With the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England fast approaching, the three-day camp in Dubai coincided with the welcome announcement that Emirates would sponsor the IRB match officials through to the 2019 Rugby World Cup, providing a significant boost to the programme.

The camp provided the opportunity for the IRB Match Official Selection Committee to reaffirm the standards and values that officials will need to attain to be selected for rugby's showcase event and benchmark against tough physical and game management criteria.

With ball-in-play time higher than ever before and players in all positions continuing to reach new standards of speed, strength and high-intensity aerobic running, the IRB and its member Unions are committed to achieving optimal levels of physical fitness to assist the world's top referees make correct decisions under what is often intense physical and mental pressure.

During an average Test match, referees cover 7 kilometres and undertake a massive number of accelerations and decelerations. Heart rates can be in the high intensity zone for up to 50% of total match time, which is comparable to officials in other team sports, such as soccer.

Chairman of the IRB Match Official Selection Committee and Chairman of the IRB Rugby Committee, John Jeffrey, said: "Two years ago we set out with the mission of delivering the best-prepared team of match officials ever assembled for a Rugby World Cup in terms of physical conditioning, psychological strength and clear and consistent game management.

"We have a highly motivated and exceptionally professional group of match officials, supported by a superb performance team, and they have all bought into the vision.

"As with players, physical conditioning is key for international refereeing and at the Dubai camp the group was assessed extensively against key performance criteria across a range of aerobic and positional tests and we are pleased with progress."

With GPS data playing an increasing role in elite sports performance, each referee's match and training data is recorded and assessed in order to benchmark performance, identify focus areas and assist the development of bespoke training programmes to enhance game preparation and performance.

Jeffrey added: "As with teams, we are building towards the Rugby World Cup and the main performance objective for the group is to ensure clear and consistent officiating.

"Our selection criteria are based on a strategy of selecting the current high level performers underpinned by a growth philosophy towards having the best match official team available for selection for RWC 2015."

The 11 referees selected to take charge of matches in the 2014 RBS 6 Nations represent a range of experience.

The world's most-capped active referee is IRFU international referee Alain Rolland and he will make his 66th and final appearance when Wales plays France in Cardiff on Friday, February 21.

Steve Walsh of New Zealand and Wales' Nigel Owens have already passed the 50-Test mark, while England's Wayne Barnes will join that exclusive club when he referees Ireland v Wales in Dublin on Saturday week (February 8).